Re: What female scents are even deadlier on the male?

Once more into the breach dear friends.... take to your trusted steeds....

Hermes Kelly Caleche

'Those horses are so spoilt I swear they sleep on straw strewn with rose petals.'.

An equine huff of a laugh, he rears his head back, raises a riding crop from his side to tap a glowing forehead. He breaks a smile and with a click of the heals of long riding boots he turns, showing off his golden mane as he does and is gone.

But it is he who smells of roses and leather and the early summer. It is he who smells exactly as you do.

He came, a messenger from 'the Gods': the judges. Those venerated men and women in whose hands your equestrian fate now resides.

How much simpler for the show-jumping powerhouses, projecting into the air with flair and barely controlled strength. Their task is merely to dazzle, to defy sense with their penetration and precision. They can be judged objectively: all they need to do is make no errors and achieve the required time.

And the masculine three day eventers? As long as they stay the course and come up reeking of earth and animal and grass, well, who cares?

Yours is the more difficult task. To harness horse sans Equipage into a wholly pleasing whole. Combine film star glamour and princessly Grace into three minutes of animal ballet.

The final preparation for your dressage moments in the ring. You and the beast exchange whispers, with a flick his tail he throws a shower of fine white powder in the air, you adjust the saddle: the finest French leather, cured and scented so not even an allusion to the abattoir might upset the ride.

You mount and breathe deeply, the breeze brings the hint of wild yellow irises from the meadows lying fallow beyond the stately home.

The same wind brings your name made tinny by tannoys. You bridle for a moment. Your desire to perform, the urge bring pleasure makes an anxious knot of your insides. Walk on.

The arena, the illustrated sports photographers' flashing bulbs, the hubbub, the crowd, the swell and the excitement.

First silence. The smell of his roses, your rose, the bridle and the horse.

Then music.

The dance begins.

Kelly Caleche is a perfume that exists above all to bring a message of pleasure. Bright, gorgeously groomed citrus, yields instantly to early summer roses and the unmistakable hue of the most luxurious leather. This leather, is the distinct Hermes note, high and clear and carrying a fragility that is to my nose slightly haunting, or perhaps more precisely yearning.

It is this quality and the sparseness - as one critic put it - of this relatively simple composition that raises this perfume above the thorny crowd.

One for times when life is about giving and receiving or desiring pleasure.

- - - Updated - - -

Please don't forget, it's you who decide what women's fragrance this guy wears every day.

My promise to you? To report back on the latest stage of my voyage across the sea of female scents...

It's a little after one am. London. The lines are closed.

The closest and most frenetic day of voting yet yielded a four-way tie. After count back, seniority and the tossing of a coin...

Today, 12th December 2012, I will be wearing:

Givenchy Absolutely Irresistible

What will I wear tomorrow? Choose from the following 10...

CoSTUME NATIONAL Scent Intense

Dolce&Gabbana D&G Light Blue

Chanel Cristalle

Chanel Les Exclusifs de Chanel Coromandel

Frederic Malle Portrait of a Lady

Prada Prada (Amber)

Hermes Eau des Merveilles

Guerlain L'Heure Bleue

Chanel Chanel N°19

...or the newcomer...

Calvin Klein Obsession

Rule Change: All previous votes count towards a fragrance's running total and every participant gets a new vote every day!

Re: What female scents are even deadlier on the male?

I renew a vote for the fabled No. 19.

I would also like to put forth an addition. A sample of this may be somewhat hard to come by, as I know I haven't seen it at any of the stores here that present testers for their fragrances. Tea Rose by The Perfumer's Workshop. I blind bought this today remembering many positive reviews on basenotes. I was anything but disappointed.

For quite some time I've been searching for a fragrance that presents almost nothing but the aroma of roses just freshly in bloom. Today I found just that. This is a scent that proves that sometimes you don't need a complex pyramid of notes and varying stages of development to be a truly wonderful fragrance. My dad had an absolutely beautiful rose bed in our back yard all the time I was growing up so we constantly had fresh cut roses on the kitchen table during the summer. I've never until now found that same, unadulterated fresh rose scent present without something else either accompanying, preceding or following the rose accord. For anyone that loves the aroma of fresh roses, male or female, this is a must have.

Re: What female scents are even deadlier on the male?

Thank you Profumo

Isn't coincidence a strange thing?

First, I too adore the scent of roses - I live near three our four of the world's most fantastic rose gardens - and whilst they have remarkably long seasons from May to September I miss them the rest of the year.

If you haven't seen them yet - there are a few comments on some other rose perfumes I encountered the other day.

Second - I chanced upon Tea Rose on a fragrance database just yesterday and looked it up immediately on e-bay and amazon - it's around and I am very, very tempted having read your words.

Big thanks for you much appreciated input.

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Thank you Profumo

Isn't coincidence a strange thing.

First, I too adore the scent of roses - I live near three our four of the world's most fantastic rose gardens - and whilst they have remarkably long seasons from May to September I miss them the rest of the year.

If you haven't seen them yet - there are a few comments on some other rose perfumes I encountered the other day.

Second - I chanced upon Tea Rose on a fragrance database just yesterday and looked it up immediately on e-bay and amazon - it's around and I am very, very tempted having read your words.

Re: What female scents are even deadlier on the male?

Originally Posted by Assiduosity

Thank you Profumo

Isn't coincidence a strange thing?

First, I too adore the scent of roses - I live near three our four of the world's most fantastic rose gardens - and whilst they have remarkably long seasons from May to September I miss them the rest of the year.

If you haven't seen them yet - there are a few comments on some other rose perfumes I encountered the other day.

Second - I chanced upon Tea Rose on a fragrance database just yesterday and looked it up immediately on e-bay and amazon - it's around and I am very, very tempted having read your words.

Big thanks for you much appreciated input.

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Thank you Profumo

Isn't coincidence a strange thing.

First, I too adore the scent of roses - I live near three our four of the world's most fantastic rose gardens - and whilst they have remarkably long seasons from May to September I miss them the rest of the year.

If you haven't seen them yet - there are a few comments on some other rose perfumes I encountered the other day.

Second - I chanced upon Tea Rose on a fragrance database just yesterday and looked it up immediately on e-bay and amazon - it's around and I am very, very tempted having read your words.

Big thanks for you much appreciated input.

Honestly, this is definitely one time that I wholeheartedly advise giving into temptation. Do, however, heed the advise of shamu1 in his review of it here on basenotes and apply very lightly. I can see, having worn this tonight, that the slightest over indulgence could render this overpowering and take one into "old lady" territory.

And yes, I did read your thoughts on the other rose scents. One of the reasons I made sure to emphasize the singular aroma of rose throughout this fragrance's development.

Re: What female scents are even deadlier on the male?

Originally Posted by Profumo Saggio

Honestly, this is definitely one time that I wholeheartedly advise giving into temptation. Do, however, heed the advise of shamu1 in his review of it here on basenotes and apply very lightly. I can see, having worn this tonight, that the slightest over indulgence could render this overpowering and take one into "old lady" territory.

And yes, I did read your thoughts on the other rose scents. One of the reasons I made sure to emphasize the singular aroma of rose throughout this fragrance's development.

Thanks Profumo - so kind of you to think of me.

This is now added to my wish list and I'll be keeping an eye out on e-bay for it.

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Thank you first of all to all of you who invited me to the most outrageous gathering in human history...

Jean Desprez Bal a Versailles

1789.

The floor of the Hall of Mirrors is filled with fractured glass.

Marie Antoinette skips gaily across the shards in untied ballet shoes and bonnet atop her seventy two inch face: six feet from chin at base through powdered visage and scaffolded hair above.

The queen and women of her toilette encased in immense dresses a la Polonaise are costumier conjurers' sleights of hand in damasks, plain silks, laces, bustles, embroiders, and petticoats, petticoats, petticoats.

They have come to disdain the deliberately deranged destruction of the night before. To review the revels and not speak of revolution.

Around them a haze of powder hangs in heavy air. They beg to deceive with orange blossoms, roses, jasmines and musk. But the nose cannot be fooled.

Despite their perfumed protests this place is menagerie not orangery.

Their very gowns give them away: nothing can counterfeit the crust of human excretia that forms on every surface.

The sweat of the near-extinguished attic seamstress infuses every sewn detail of the skirts; the drool of the fawning courtier in search of sexual and political favours forms dried rivers on each sleeve; a distressing, animal dampness rises from decolletages disturbed by distant cousins' amourous graspings.

And all around, amongst the fallen soldiers of the soon to be ancien regime: felled by drink, excess and fornication, an unseen feral mob is rising too.

Beneath floors and between walls, in attics and unused ante chambers a mass of minks swirls with civets and the escaped sheep of a pet farm, together feeding on crumbs of the vanilla cake of a court that has banished bread.

'More powder!' commands our monarch and asks her resins be brought forward to staunch the stench. But no amount of balsam can retrench the putrid perfume of a palace in its death throes.

From a grand salon far off in a distant wing of her vast sarcophagus she catches music in three four time and begins involuntarily to dance.

One slither of a mirror slices through shoe and draws a steady line of blue blood from her pale royal skin.

Death is in the room and will not depart.

***

Bal a Versailles is a dangerous, irresistibly repugnant scent for men and women prepared to dance the dance of death. For all its wondrous beauty nothing can disguise the beating of its monstrous bestial heart.

There may be flowers and powder a plenty but this is an unapologetically animal aroma with plenty of tooth and claw.

With silage the size of a herd of wildebeest and longevity the length of an elephant's memory this is not a commitment to be taken likely.

Accept its invitation and you are bid welcome to the party of a lifetime, but stay too long and you to may succumb to the guillotine's blade.

But hell is worth the risk!!

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It's a little after midnight. London. The lines are closed.

After a more pedestrian day at the polls a winner by an hair's breadth.

Today, 13th December 2012, I will be wearing:

Chanel Cristalle

What will I wear tomorrow? Choose from the following 10...

CoSTUME NATIONAL Scent Intense

Dolce&Gabbana D&G Light Blue

Chanel Les Exclusifs de Chanel Coromandel

Frederic Malle Portrait of a Lady

Prada Prada (Amber)

Hermes Eau des Merveilles

Guerlain L'Heure Bleue

Chanel Chanel N°19

Calvin Klein Obsession

Or the newcomer...

Estée Lauder Azuree Pure

Remember all previous votes count towards a fragrance's running total and every participant gets a new vote every day!

Re: What female scents are even deadlier on the male?

Oh, Obsession is my vote. You can smell like every single girl in my high school who ever entertained the delusion she might be hot stuff. (Can't go near that stuff now. It was bad for me then; now it's "Where's my inhaler?")

Re: What female scents are even deadlier on the male?

Originally Posted by CompassRose

Oh, Obsession is my vote. You can smell like every single girl in my high school who ever entertained the delusion she might be hot stuff. (Can't go near that stuff now. It was bad for me then; now it's "Where's my inhaler?")

Err thanks Compass Rose.

But you know when I set out on this journey part of the adventure was always going to be that I would encounter some horrors as well as joys and so far I've gotten away very, very easily, so perhaps it's time for my comeuppance ]. Hehehe.

Re: What female scents are even deadlier on the male?

Every single time i wear Opium (vintage) Im going around thinking how great it would be on a man. Tried getting my hubbie to spray some on, without success. I really dont think its a bit girly, should be a hit!

- - - Updated - - -

The original KL by lagerfelt feels super unisex aswell. Eau de Rochas dito.

Re: What female scents are even deadlier on the male?

Originally Posted by lottalotta

Every single time i wear Opium (vintage) Im going around thinking how great it would be on a man. Tried getting my hubbie to spray some on, without success. I really dont think its a bit girly, should be a hit!

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The original KL by lagerfelt feels super unisex aswell. Eau de Rochas dito.

Even the current version of Opium is very good in my opinion. I just smelled this again the other day after not having encountered it for a while. I love the pour Homme but could also easily see wearing the female version.

I can't find anywhere to test the KL. It's another that I have and love the vintage male version.

Re: What female scents are even deadlier on the male?

Originally Posted by Profumo Saggio

Even the current version of Opium is very good in my opinion. I just smelled this again the other day after not having encountered it for a while. i love the pour Homme but could also easily see wearing the female version.

I can't find anywhere to test the KL. It's another that I have and love the vintage male version.

Some interesting suggestions here - Opium has been mentioned before and I have access to both the vintage and current formulations..

KL by Lagerfelt and Eau de Rochas are new to the thread - so thanks for the original recommendations.

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A surprise review today!

Unfortunately Givenchy Absolutely Irresistible is proving absolutely impossible to locate in the UK where it has been 'withdrawn'.

Never fear, I have a sample on order through the internet and I will return to Hubert's house as soon as it arrives.

Meanwhile, today's travelling companion was:

Chanel Cristalle

The winter is passed.

Throw open shutters long closed against the saddest season and let the sunlight in.

Squinting in the brilliance perceive a sea of lemon trees: leaves waxy, elliptical fruit vivid in their summer coats.

Pause to take in the clear air still sharp with morning's first coolness.

Re: What female scents are even deadlier on the male?

OK Assiduosity, some of my recommendations might seem a bit odd. I won't tell you to try anything I haven't worn myself, though.

Good list so far. I dig Arpege, Tabu, Opium, not such a big fan of Shalimar but I don't think it's exclusively femenine and I can't come at the reformulations of Mitsouko. Still, here are some of my picks, designer first:

As mentioned before La roue de la Fortune. I'm seriously in love with this at the moment.

Obsession is another. If you like Opium, Tabu, etc., the spicey/warm orientals then I don't think you'll have a problem with this. Infinately more pleasant than the awful Obsession for men.

Madness by Chopard. This was back when pink pepper was the big fragrance cliche, but there was nothing cliche about this fragrance. Moreover Wish and Casmir, being very gourmand, can definately suit some men.

The ubiquitous Bvlgari Blv (not the masculine) is one of those fragrances which, in not being unisex, confuses the hell out of me. There's nothing overtly femenine about this. It's so inoffensive and boringly nice anyone can wear it.

Gucci by Gucci EDP; honey and patchouli, what's not to like? Honestly I get flashes of this, and vice versa, from the reformulated Givenchy Gentleman.

My Sin, which has been recommended, while perhaps discontinued is not beyond our grasp. Long Lost Perfumes are making a version of it which is quite respectable.

Caleche has been recommended I note. So now I must recommend Kelly Caleche. Transparent rose/leather. A favourite of mine at the moment. These are both fantastic.

Joop! Femme, I haven't worn this in a long time, but now that I've thought of it once more I may go pick up a bottle.

Encre Noire Pour Elle, Pour Elle it is not (for me) old roses (I happen to believe Rose is a very unisex note) and musk? Perhaps too powdery for some men.

Lalique le Parfum, bottle!porn and fragrance!porn all rolled into one

Pearls de Lalique, seriously unisex. I can't imagine many men feeling uncomfortable in this.

Prada Infusion d'Iris and Candy

Chanel Cristalle and Cristalle au the Vert

Capucine from Chloe's Eau de Fluers series

Givenchy's Ysatis, Into the Blue (I see this primarily marketed at women) and eau de Givenchy

CK One Shock For Her

Robert Piguet's Bandit, Fracas and Visa

Pierre Balmain Jolie Madame

OK I'm sure I could think of more designer stuff, but that's enough. I'll post again later with niche suggestions.

Re: What female scents are even deadlier on the male?

With this amazing post you take me beyond the 300 mark in terms of all the suggestions and recommendations that I've received.

I'm really so grateful to you and too all the other people that have contributed so generously and knowledgeably to the thread and to my magnificent adventure.

So to the next leg of the adventure...

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Today I ventured forth from the orange and lemon groves and towards the coast...

Hermes Eau des Merveilles

The scent of skin after a day sea swimming.

Warm salt water dried to crystals and then in turn smoothed away with lotions of amber and orange oil.

Departing hot sands in wild grass espadrilles you scale high dunes, where ocean's air is freest and head for coniferous forest beyond.

Amongst cedars and firs you find yourself jumping pools of light, cascading waterfalls of illumination from the incomplete canopy above.

You break a peppery sweat and stop to recall waves breaking on the shore, the sigh of sand as water withdraws and crackling salt, shimmering in sunlight.

So the sea bids you to return, to accept her effervescent embrace, relinquish the amber and the orange oil to her charms, the waxing and the waning of her watery arms.

At ocean's reach, you wait a moment, regard the indeterminate horizon, then, on an instant dive and enter the cool blue immensity.

***

Eau de Merveilles is a minor miracle of a fragrance.

What it may lack in troubling depths and dark complexity it more than makes up for in its spare and precise composition.

This perfume exceeds the mere reminiscence of a beach in high summer, this is sand, and sun and sea and mainly salt.

There are some tones of sweetness too, of amber and orange citrus. There's swathe of forest, the needles of towering conifers, their bark, their resins and the wild grasses that the trees protect then give way to on the exposed dunes.

After the initial fruit of the opening the fragrance dries down into a fairly linear scent, but then aren't the best beach days seemingly constant and unending too?

And the best beach days? Well they are shared with the best of friends, and they can all - men and women - come along to this elegant party.

- - - Updated - - -

It's a little after 1am (Hey it is Friday!). London. The lines are closed.

On countback and by the tiniest of margins.

Today, 15th December 2012, I will be wearing:

Frederic Malle Portrait of a Lady

What will I wear tomorrow? Choose from the following 10...

CoSTUME NATIONAL Scent Intense

Dolce&Gabbana D&G Light Blue

Chanel Les Exclusifs de Chanel Coromandel

Prada Prada (Amber)

Guerlain L'Heure Bleue

Chanel Chanel N°19

Calvin Klein Obsession

Estée Lauder Azuree Pure

Yves Saint Laurent Opium

Or the newcomer...

Estée Lauder Cinnabar

Remember all previous votes count towards a fragrance's running total and every participant gets a new vote every day!

Re: What female scents are even deadlier on the male?

Liked your review of Hermes Eau des Merveilles! I am getting a sample to test myself. I think I will like it. Thanks!
You are going to have a good time reviewing "Portrait of a Lady"; it's simply sublime! Can't wait to hear your take on it.
I vote for Guerlain L'Heure Bleue as your next frag. It's complex and hard for just any man to wear. You have to be confident in yourself. The vintage version was a masterpiece by Guerlain, but today's LHB is a decent shadow of her former self and I love wearing it.

Re: What female scents are even deadlier on the male?

Re: What female scents are even deadlier on the male?

Bought a 1oz bottle of Alien EdP tonight. The grape jasmine note on top hooked me immediately. Never thought I'd find a Mugler I liked. I'm taking this out for the first time tonight and I'll be sure to give my full impression when I get home.

After giving it the night out I still haven't found a Mugler I like. The grape jasmine that drew me in remained prominent throughout and became overwhelmingly cloying as the night went on. Every time I caught a whiff it literally made me nauseous. This will be going back and swapped for Shalimar Parfum Initial.

Re: What female scents are even deadlier on the male?

Originally Posted by mlsweeney

Scent Intense gets my vote.

A bit of a sleeper this one, but slowly climbing to the top of the top 10.

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Originally Posted by southerngardens

Liked your review of Hermes Eau des Merveilles! I am getting a sample to test myself. I think I will like it. Thanks!
You are going to have a good time reviewing "Portrait of a Lady"; it's simply sublime! Can't wait to hear your take on it.
I vote for Guerlain L'Heure Bleue as your next frag. It's complex and hard for just any man to wear. You have to be confident in yourself. The vintage version was a masterpiece by Guerlain, but today's LHB is a decent shadow of her former self and I love wearing it.

I really like Eau de Merveilles. It's an extremely subtle fragrance - expect no fireworks, but a perfect evocation of a time and place. It also has surprisingly pleasant silage for something that could at first seem rather a close to the skin scent. I also found longevity - with which I often have problems to be good.

As for the gender question - there isn't one, this is totally available for men or women.

I'm looking forward to L'Heure Bleu - I love these old Guerlain scents no matter how much tell me to be weary of them. But I guess a few days in and I'm getting battle hardened - maybe people are backing away from me and laughing and I haven't noticed yet. He laughs.

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Originally Posted by Profumo Saggio

Bought a 1oz bottle of Alien EdP tonight. The grape jasmine note on top hooked me immediately. Never thought I'd find a Mugler I liked. I'm taking this out for the first time tonight and I'll be sure to give my full impression when I get home.

After giving it the night out I still haven't found a Mugler I like. The grape jasmine that drew me in remained prominent throughout and became overwhelmingly cloying as the night went on. Every time I caught a whiff it literally made me nauseous. This will be going back and swapped for Shalimar Parfum Initial.

Yes, there is something very - insistent about Mugler fragrances. I don't mean that in their own way they're not complex and well composed but there seems to be little variation, not much of a journey to travel. We'll see - this one has quite a lot of support and so I may end up wearing it soon!

I don't think you'll regret Shalimar Parfum Initial. I loved it - an exercise in creamy vanilla without the cloying.

Re: What female scents are even deadlier on the male?

Assiduosity, I am sure not one that is laughing at you. I applaud what your doing. It would be a great thing at the end of the trials to put together a list of unisex frags, borderline unisex frags, etc.. as a thread of reference to new board members that may like unisex frags the way some of us guys do. Keep up the good work!

Re: What female scents are even deadlier on the male?

Today we're off to a very particular place. The Regent's Park, named after our most perfumed of princes, is London's most beautiful open space and at it's heart is a exquisite secret.

Frederic Malle Portrait of a Lady

At the Regent's Park in London, nestled below the Primrose Hill where flowers no longer grow. Between the slight lake, ornamental bridge and 'alpine' blooms of a Japanese landscape and the proper boxed-in beauty of Italian avenues there lies a rose garden.

Here, between late May and mid September, thirty thousand stems of four hundred different families compete each year in fragrant floral battle.

They are called 'Song and Dance', 'Mountbatten', 'Radox', 'Angela Rippon' after Broadway shows, royal relatives, soap sud-ed relaxation and near forgotten newsreaders.

All summer they spread their scents and crowd each other out: corollas inevitably bigger, bolder and more carelessly beautiful than before.

Join me now at this season's end, after a downpour has broken the uncommon heat, and in an humidity that humbles.

The flowers have begun their sweet decay. And the thirty thousand's innumerable thousands of petals are distilled by a climate we despair of into nature's perfume.

So many notes in this massed choir and yet they reach a harmony, and sing, if not with one voice, then in a a single accord.

Rose.

The memories of the blooming months just passed pass through my mind - summer fruits and festivals - incense burnt against insects, harvests preserved with cloves and cinnamon and spices in jams, chutneys, pickles: all to warm cold winter.

This is water to ward off long dark nights.

A sketch of nature's most seductive daughter: Summer.

***

Portrait of a Lady is as simple as a rose garden made scent.

It may carry the notes of various varieties and species, but ultimately they unite to form a fragrance that is pitch perfect.

There are summer fruits here too, crushed raspberries and blackcurrants, their juice released directly onto the prying fingers that try to pick them.

For me, the incense comes and goes and is as much sweet benzoin, spice and sandalwood as it is smoke. It never shouts down the floral heart of the perfume that is so attractive and enduring.

The English Rose is of course a Lady, and this is a particular, accurate and charming picture of her.

But the rose is also the symbol of England itself and no Englishman, indeed no man of any country, should be embarrassed to wear the bloom in his buttonhole and the scent next to his skin.

- - - Updated - - -

It's a little after midnight. London. The lines are closed.

On countback (again) and by the tiniest of margins.

Today, 16th December 2012, I will be wearing:

Guerlain L'Heure Bleue
What will I wear tomorrow? Choose from the following 10...

CoSTUME NATIONAL Scent Intense

Dolce&Gabbana D&G Light Blue

Chanel Les Exclusifs de Chanel Coromandel

Prada Prada (Amber)

Chanel Chanel N°19

Calvin Klein Obsession

Estée Lauder Azuree Pure

Yves Saint Laurent Opium

Estée Lauder Cinnabar

Or the newcomer...

Cartier Must de Cartier

Remember all previous votes count towards a fragrance's running total and every participant gets a new vote every day!

Re: What female scents are even deadlier on the male?

Originally Posted by Profumo Saggio

Bought a 1oz bottle of Alien EdP tonight. The grape jasmine note on top hooked me immediately. Never thought I'd find a Mugler I liked. I'm taking this out for the first time tonight and I'll be sure to give my full impression when I get home.

After giving it the night out I still haven't found a Mugler I like. The grape jasmine that drew me in remained prominent throughout and became overwhelmingly cloying as the night went on. Every time I caught a whiff it literally made me nauseous. This will be going back and swapped for Shalimar Parfum Initial.

Thanks, Profumo. I was reading that with interest as Alien has been quietly whispering to me from the depths of my subconscience since I smelled it about two years ago. And yesterday I smelled it on someone walking ahead of me on the street, and it smelled great. But every time I get close to it I'm no longer sure I can deal with the cloying. I think it's totally not for me, but then it won't go away!